STEWART ISLAND

Evening Star, Issue 19758, 7 January 1928, Page 16

STEWART ISLAND

PLACE NAMES [By Bash, H. Howabd.] ' No. 11. ' Mt. Anglem.—3,2ooft, the highest point of the island. Captain Harry Anglem (Anglira, Anglin, Auglunu) was one of the most noted whalers on the coast. It is not known when ho first, came to southern New Zealand, but his half-caste daughter was born in 1829 (the late Mrs “Paddy” Gilroy). ’Hr M.'Nab’s records show that he was one of the whaling captains of G. Bunn and Co., of Port Jackson, who at that time had the Bakituma 'Whaling Station at Preservation Inlet. He was successively in command of the Caroline (1830), Samuel (1831), Caroline (1832-33), Lucy Ann (1834-35). The latter boat was owned by the Weller Bros., of the Otakou and Taieri Mouth Stations. In the mid-thirties and later the southern whaling areas were being deserted for the Cloudy Bay grounds. When “Jacky” Guard escaped from the Maori in Taranaki after the wreck of the Harriett on Capo Egmont, be found the Joseph "Weller (built at Port Pegasus) and the Lucy Ann, Captain Auglcm, at Port Nicholson. Anglem promised to assist any attempts that the New South Wales Government might make to rescue Guard’s wife and others captured by the Maori. He is credited with an expedition to the west coast for a cargo of greenstone to he taken to China. Presumably be did not succeed.

Later he retired to tho Neck, where report has it be employed himself piloting. He died there in 1846, and was buried about 200 yards from the point on tho north-w'est side hi a cemetery with some others. His papers and charts vanished; they may have been buried with him; they may have been destroyed in the tire which burned his house shortly after his death;, they may have come into the hands of Captain Stokes, of the Acheron, who set great value by his local surveys. “Paddy,” Gilroy said that Anglem was an Irishman destined in his, youth to become a Catholic priest. His roving nature apparently gained the upper hand. Captain' William .Anglem, his son, who died not long ago at the Bluff, was mate and navigator to “ Paddy ” in the Chance.

The name “ Mt. Anglem ” was probably given after his death. Bishop Selwyn, visiting Stewart Island in 1844. calls the mountain “Saddle Hill.” The name “Saddle Point” along the coast under the hill is Mill in use. The Native name is “Hananui.”

Ascent of the peak is difficult owing to the nature of tho country and to tho lack of facilities. There is a story which may not hear investigation of a party that attempted to como back overland through the untracked hush. They were picked up by some mill hands more dead, than alive, and totally ignorant of their whereabouts. The first.’recorded ascent was made by Professor Kirk and party in 1884,'m circumstances which, they never forgot. A track had been cut some time earlier, but it had not been completed. The most difficult section through tho impenetrable scrub nearer the top had been left uncut. At the end of the track they pitched the tent ready for their return, and pushed on, into the jungle of undergrowth, forcing their way through it, climbing over it, creeping under it. Before the top was reached the weather had settled down to a blizzard of snow and hail. Professor Kirk says: “Bight in front towered the highest peak half obscured by driving snow, steep and precipitous; hut between the crest on which we stood and the beetling cliffs was a orateriform hollow, apparently 300 ft in depth,-the bottom of which was occupied by a lake. The ridge from which we looked down to the lake sloped gradually to the water’s edge, causing the hollow to present the appearance of a cup-shaped crater. I was unable to detect the outlet of the lake, but one of the party caught a view of it as the falling snow was momentarily swept on one side by a heavier blast than usual.” Mr A. \V. Traill, who was a member of the party, says that in spite of the Arctic weather and frozen hands Professor Kirk went on hotauising energetically, and could scarcely be persuaded to leave the snow-swept crest. Tho party spent a miserable night round a lire amid the manuka. 'When dawn came they found that they had camped out a few hundred yards from the tent! They reached tho coast again scratched and torn from top to toe, trousers streaming in ribbons from the knee and clothes in general tatters. The crater lake was called “Bakiwai ” by the Bey. D. C. Bates, who made the ascent in 1901.

Anglem Point.—The extreme northeast point of the Neck. It was so named by ]Bbo. Captain Anglem’s bouse stood near the point. See above. Arnett’s Creek.—ln the Pegasus district flowing into the Ivopeka River. Arnett was one of the surveyors engaged in survey work at tho time of tho tin rush, in 1888-90. Abbot Passage.—The channel between Bench island and _ the Fancy Group off Halfmoon Bay is so named on the chart. I do not think that it is common use. Probably the name is duo to tho Acheron survey. Bald Cone. —Sometimes known as Balk Peak. This is a remarkable granite cone rising from the southern shore of Shipbuilders’ Cove, Port Pegasus. Although it attains no greater height than 918 ft, it is quite outstanding amid tbo_ naked granite formation characteristic of the _ district. An early writer refers to it as one of the sights of the port, fully justifying its name. Barclay Rock.—A rocky islet lying close to Akers Point, tho southern he;id of Halfmoon Bay. A vessel called Lady Barkly struck on the rock in the late fifties or early sixties; she escaped without serious damage. Popular report connects the two names, although the spellings are different. Bench Island.—The largest of the islands lying off Halfmoon Bay and Paterson Inlet. Contrary to general opinion, Bench cannot be seen from Halfmoon, as it lies off the Neck. “Long” Island is a name frequently beard locally; it is to'be honed that it will not displace “ Bench, which dales from Captain Cook’s chart of 1772. In Bench Island, South Cape, and the Traps wo have the only traces of the navigator’s visit to this coast. Some early maps give “ Beach ” Island, which is obviously a misreading of Cook’s original, in the survey maps we find the alternative name “Coll.” Discussion of this and other names borrowed from the west coast of Scotland will be reserved till the close of these notes. Blaikie’s Hill, Blaikie’s Creek.— Blaikie was a miner working in the district in the lively days of the “Tin Rush” of 1888, The hill rises to a height of 2,272 ft in the central mountain district of the Pegasus district. _ Bravo Island.—Off Glory Cove in Paterson Inlet. The island is best known to visitors as the locality of the “Haunted House.” In 1888 it was the most southerly settlement on Stewart Island, there being then three families numbering twenty-three persons. The name conies from one of the Cape Verde Islands, the birthplace of Manuel Goomes, a Portuguese, one of the original settlers on Bravo. Goomes was a cripple in the later years of his life, and died on the island and ■was buried near his- old home./ His spiriDwas popularly supposed to haunt the house. Belief in the story rapidly spread, and the building was held in due awe by many of the local people who had been familiar with Mr

Goomes. _ The haunting was quite in accord with the usual traditions. Windows rattled, doors banged, ceilings sagged, and spirits rapped; unfortunately for general interest the demonstrations stopped short of actual apparitions. It goes without saying that the house remained uninhabited; but, for all its fearful reputation, tho bouse was occupied by a party nf holidaymakers from Bluff. They bad no masculine protectors, and wore entirely isolated. It was a'happy and successful holiday. Ghosts? One of the party told me Hint the windows did rattle whenever she forget to put pegs into them! So much for the haunting. The Island is now deserted. The Brothers,—Two small islands off the entrance to Easy Cove, on the west const. They are more commonly known as the “Sisters,” or the “Haystacks.” Bruce Reef. —In 1861 Captain Meiklejohn, of tho ship Bruce, bound from Otago to Calcutta, reported a. fanferous reef about five miles off Port Adventure. (Exact position was given.) His vessel bad apparently narrowly escaped disaster. The reef was taken for granted, and warnings were included in nautical publications. Eventually it was recorded on the charts. In January, 1873, Captain Paterson, of the Jane Anderson, reported to the papers that no reef existed in the locality, as he had sailed his vessel over the spot. Ho suggested that Meiklejohn had observed either Wreck Reef or Weka Reef nearer the coast. Since that date the entry lias been deleted from the'Admiralty chart. However, the insertion of Theresa Rock between the alleged reef and those mentioned above gives a more likely cause for the captain’s error. The corrections may date from the survey of H.M.S. Penguin in 1904, hut I have not had the curiosity to inquire. _ I do not suggest that the origins and the information given in these notes is in any way authoritative and final. Much of it must be conjecture and hearsay. I should, therefore, be grateful for suggestions from readers

who have oilier or variant information.

tiller’s Creek, Bnller's Beach.—lt cannot be definitely proved that these two names are of identical origin. The beach at the Nock certainly owes its* name to “ Boiler,” flic popular title of a well-known and well-loved Maori who lived there. He was a son ot old Te Manama and half-brother to “King” Topi. As a hoy he was brought up, together with another Native child, by .John Williams, who lived on the north-east side of Halfmoon Bay. As his baptism, which was perlormcd by the Bov. .1. H. Mulders, lie was given the pakclia, name of his foster parent—John Williams. He passed away about 1016, being the last full-blooded Maori to die- at the Bluff. Buller’s Crock is a tributary of the Jvopeka River on the south coast. There are some who think that the name comes from some prospector working in the district, but the old hands attribute ,it to the Buller mentioned above. Bishop and • Clerks. —A group of rocks lying off Cave Point on the north coast, "near ‘ Ruggedy Islands, This name is local, but well established. Charts and maps label them “White Rocks,” a sufficiently colorless and unimaginative appellation.